When All Was Well
by EvilToTheCore13
Summary: Rebecca Chambers isn't quite sure what to expect on her first day at STARS. Still, she's looking forward to it-it's a chance to help people, after all, and she's eager to prove herself. But very little in Raccoon City is what it seems... Captain Wesker-the respected and trusted leader of STARS-least of all.


**A/N: I nearly forgot to thank a couple of people from Discord! Thanks to Uly for title help, and Emperor Aaravos for beta reading.**

**UPDATE**

**It turns out that the website's captcha reset while I was trying to post this, so no characters were tagged, and it was not marked as complete. I have now changed that. **

**This fic is a oneshot (sorry that wasn't clear earlier). However, I do have other STARS-based oneshots planned for some future point. They will only be loosely connected.**

**Also, thank you Guest reviewer for reading and reviewing my story, I'm glad you found it interesting. In response to your question, I am planning for my STARS oneshots to be canon-compliant, not going into AU or canon divergence. As for whether there'll be more Rebecca...I can't promise anything as I haven't really planned most of these out, but she'll probably appear more at some point.**

Rebecca thought she'd never be able to find her way around the police station. The place was practically a maze. She'd followed Captain Wesker down several very similar-looking corridors, and had been starting to feel like they were going in circles, but they'd somehow finally found themselves approaching the STARS office.

Rebecca glanced up nervously at the captain, walking as fast as she could just to keep up with him. She'd heard quite a few stories about him while she was at the police academy. Apparently he had a reputation for catching criminals no-one else could—and for being pretty intimidating.

Still, he hadn't acted all that scary around her. Not yet, anyway. Kind of formal, but then he was her boss. And yes, maybe she was a little bit...in awe of him, but she wouldn't say she was _scared _of him exactly. Well, not very. She was a police officer now, after all. Couldn't let herself be scared that easily.

Captain Wesker stayed silent until they were nearly in the office doorway, then turned to her.

"Welcome to STARS, Officer Chambers."

"Thank you. Sir."

Rebecca hoped he didn't think she was disrespectful for almost forgetting to say "Sir"-she just wasn't used to it yet.

Thankfully, he didn't seem to mind. Maybe he hadn't even noticed. The sunglasses made his expression hard to read.

She followed Captain Wesker through the door into the STARS office. She'd never been in there before, only in the captain's office—which was separated off from the rest of the room—for her interview.

As they entered, all five of the people working in the office turned to look at them. They were all older than Rebecca—probably the whole team except her were experienced police officers. She took a deep breath, telling herself not to let this put her off. She'd been chosen for this team just like they had, she reminded herself. Captain Wesker must have thought she'd be a valuable member of the team, or he wouldn't have recruited her.

The Captain spoke to the group. "This is Officer Rebecca Chambers, the new recruit."

A tall, serious-looking man with a moustache stepped towards her. "Welcome to Bravo Team. My name's Enrico Marini. Captain of this team, and Vice-Captain of STARS." He shook her hand.

Captain Wesker turned and left the room, apparently deciding he could leave Rebecca with Bravo Team for now. Rebecca was quite relieved at that—Captain Marini didn't seem nearly as intimidating.

"I've heard some impressive things about you," Captain Marini said.

Rebecca wasn't quite sure how to respond to that—thankfully, though, she didn't have to, as another man, probably in his early 20s and with light brown hair cut short like a soldier's, approached them before she could have said anything.

"Hi, I'm Richard Aiken," he said. "I'm going to be supervising you during your field training."

"Hi...Officer Aiken," she replied, not quite sure what she was meant to call him. He seemed quite friendly and not at all formal, and he was closer to her age than anyone else she'd met at STARS so far, but he was still a much more experienced police officer. "I'm Rebecca Chambers."

He smiled. "You can just call me Richard. STARS is a bit less formal than the rest of the RPD—most of us use first names when we're not being official. Except Captain Wesker, he's just Captain Wesker—I mean, Chris sometimes gets away with just 'Wesker', but I wouldn't try that if I were you. Anyway, how about I introduce you to the others?"

The first person Richard introduced her to was Kenneth Sullivan, a bald man with a short beard who looked older than the others. He shook her hand enthusiastically. "It'll be great to have another scientist on the team."

"Oh, I've only just graduated, I don't know that I could call myself a _scientist_ exactly-"

"I'd say you're a scientist," he replied. "You have a degree at 18, that's pretty damn impressive."

"Thanks," Rebecca said, smiling.

"Kenneth has a PhD in Chemistry," Richard added. "I'm sure you'll get on great."

It was nice to know she had something in common with someone on the team. She'd never seen herself as the police officer type until recently, and hadn't been sure what they'd think of her. Maybe she'd fit in better than she'd expected.

Another man walked towards her. "Hey, recruit," he grinned, "Welcome to the team. Name's Forest Speyer." He was wearing a non-uniform T-shirt instead of a short-sleeved shirt with the STARS emblem on like the others, and his hair was as long as regulations allowed, possibly slightly longer.

Richard sighed. "Don't let him be a bad influence on you."

The other member of the team was Edward Dewey, a tall man with slicked-back brown hair. Like all the others, he was very welcoming, and Rebecca was definitely starting to relax and get used to the idea of being part of this team.

"I should probably show you around," Richard said.

He showed her everything from the locker where weapons were kept, to the various trophies on the shelves and the certificates on the wall with the STARS flag. He stopped in front of two certificates for an RPD marksmanship contest—one for a Corporal Redfield in first place, and the other, Captain Wesker in second place.

Richard noticed Rebecca's look of surprise. "Yeah, that surprised all of us," he said. "Especially Captain Wesker, and that doesn't happen every day. Chris had only just joined at the time and none of us were expecting him to be that good."

"I wonder what Captain Wesker's first name is," Rebecca said. "It isn't even on the certificate."

"No idea." Richard grinned. "Maybe it's something really embarrassing."

Rebecca couldn't help laughing, even though she knew she shouldn't be making fun of her superiors.

At that moment the door opened and Captain Wesker entered. Rebecca immediately did her best to look serious, and she noticed Richard doing the same. As always, it was hard to tell what the Captain was thinking thanks to those sunglasses—why was he still wearing them in here, anyway?-but Rebecca didn't think he looked pleased. Had he overheard them? No, he wasn't even looking at her, it was probably something else.

She tried not to stare as he headed towards his own office, ignoring everyone in the room. He closed the door—not quite _slammed_, but certainly harder than it needed to be closed. A few people looked curiously in his direction as he did so. Through the window of his office, Rebecca could see him sit down at his desk and start reading through some notes.

Edward broke the silence first. "What's up with him?"

"Probably just got back from a meeting with Irons," Forest said.

"I don't expect it's anything we need to worry about," Richard said. "Anyway, Rebecca—want to go put your things on your desk? It's the one opposite mine."

Rebecca hadn't actually brought much stuff with her, but she sat down at her new desk anyway. Richard had explained to her that she'd have to remove everything from her desk at the end of the shift, since they didn't have enough space for everyone on both Alpha and Bravo team to have their own.

Still, it was only 4pm and Bravo Team's shift didn't end until 11. That was plenty of time to get used to everything. Rebecca looked around the room trying to imagine herself working there every day. If her first day so far was anything to go by, she was going to enjoy it.

But before she could start on any work, Captain Wesker stepped out of his office. "Officer Chambers. I need to talk to you."

Rebecca glanced at the others, wondering if they knew what was going on, but they all seemed just as confused as she was. She turned back to Captain Wesker.

"Yes, sir."

She followed him into his office. He sat back down at his desk and looked at her sharply.

"Close the door." Was he angry with her? This couldn't be good.

She did so, still watching him to try and figure out what this was all about.

"...Is something wrong, sir?"

He paused before answering. "You haven't done anything wrong."

Rebecca stepped away from the door, to stand awkwardly opposite the desk.

The Captain lowered his voice. "I just need to give you some advice...a warning, in fact. Regarding Chief Irons."

Rebecca looked at him, slightly confused. She'd never met the Chief and didn't think she was that likely to—how often would the police chief want anything to do with a new recruit, after all?

"I don't wish to say anything unprofessional about my colleagues...however, I would advise you to avoid speaking to him if possible, especially on your own."

"Why's that?" Rebecca asked. Did Captain Wesker think she'd embarrass herself or get into trouble just by talking to the Chief? "I mean I'm not arguing with you, but-"

"Let me deal with Irons if it ever becomes necessary, Officer Chambers." His voice was still quiet, but his tone was harsh enough to startle her. "And do not discuss this conversation with anyone. That is an order."

Rebecca just nodded. She still wanted to know why, but didn't dare ask—she'd already somehow managed to make the Captain angry on her first day, she didn't want to risk losing her job. She still couldn't believe she even _had _this job. "Elite tactical police team" sounded more like something from a TV show than anything she'd ever expected to be part of. She couldn't mess this up.

Captain Wesker was now looking at something on his computer as if Rebecca wasn't even there. Rebecca waited to see if he wanted anything else.

There was an uncomfortable silence, until Captain Wesker said "You're dismissed," without looking up from whatever he was working on.

Rebecca went back into the STARS office to find the whole team—except Captain Marini, who was calmly working at his desk—looking at her.

"What was all that about?" Edward asked.

Rebecca hesitated. She didn't want to lie to the rest of the team—especially when they'd been so nice to her—but she couldn't just ignore Captain Wesker's orders. He wouldn't have told her not to talk about this if he didn't have a good reason for it.

"Never mind," she said eventually. "It's...kind of private."

Thankfully, no-one asked any more questions.

Later, during break, Richard took her to one side to speak to her without the others hearing. "Is everything OK? I mean, you don't have to tell me, but...if you want to..."

"It's fine, don't worry about it."

Soon, Rebecca was distracted by work, and by the time their shift was nearly over she'd almost forgotten about the strange conversation with Captain Wesker. Her first day had gone very smoothly otherwise. The team hadn't been called out to anything, so they'd mostly just been doing paperwork. By this point, everyone had finished their actual work, and they were mostly just chatting—Captain Marini had just left the room, and Captain Wesker had also apparently left at some point, although no-one had seen where he'd gone.

Edward had been telling Rebecca stories about the rest of the team. Mostly about Forest. Apparently he'd accidentally tased a guy called Joseph Frost from Alpha Team a week ago, amongst other things.

"Not long now until our shift's over," Kenneth said. "Been a pretty quiet day."

Just then, Captain Marini entered. "We're not going home just yet, Officer Dewey. Captain Wesker's just told me we have a lead on the recent murders in the Arklay Mountains. We're taking the helicopter and heading out to the mountains now."

Her first case. Rebecca took a deep breath. She'd heard rumours about these murders, although she hoped the worst of them were too crazy to be true. She looked around at the team. They all seemed calm enough. This was probably routine for them.

She ran through everything she'd learned in police academy in her head. She could do this. This was what she'd signed up for, after all—to protect people. She'd turned down job offers from several major companies because she'd wanted to do something that helped people instead of just making money, and this was it.

Maybe, one day, she'd become as good a police officer as Captain Marini or Captain Wesker.


End file.
